Goldman Sachs In The Clear? From Forbes.com

FYI: THE EXTENSION OF THE TAX CREDIT STILL HAS NOT BEEN PASSED. IT WAS PART OF A MUCH LARGER JOBS BILL THAT DID NOT PASS LATE THURS. NIGHT.

Alert: THE EXTENSION OF THE TAX CREDIT STILL HAS NOT BEEN PASSED. IT WAS PART OF A MUCH LARGER JOBS BILL THAT DID NOT PASS LATE THURS. NIGHT.

Fannie Mae Intensifies Penalties for Strategic Defaulters

WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) announced today policy changes designed to encourage borrowers to work with their servicers and pursue alternatives to foreclosure. Defaulting borrowers who walk-away and had the capacity to pay or did not complete a workout alternative in good faith will be ineligible for a new Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for a period of seven years from the date of foreclosure. Borrowers who have extenuating circumstances may be eligible for new loan in a shorter timeframe.  Read More on Fannie Mae Website

Senate approves home tax credit extension

Senate approves home tax credit extension
By ANDREW TAYLOR (AP) – 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday approved a plan to give homebuyers an extra three months to finish qualifying for federal tax incentives that boosted home sales this spring.
The move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would give buyers until Sept. 30 to complete their purchases and qualify for tax credits of up to $8,000. Under the current terms, buyers had until April 30 to get a signed sales contract and until June 30 to complete the sale.
The proposal, approved by a 60-37 vote, would only allow people who already have signed contracts to finish at the later date. About 180,000 homebuyers who already signed purchase agreements would otherwise miss the deadline.
Reid, D-Nev., added the proposal to a bill extending jobless benefits through the end of November. Nevada has the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, and Reid is facing a tough re-election campaign.
The Realtors group has been pushing hard in Congress for the extension. Mortgage lenders, the trade group says, have been swamped with borrowers trying to get approved by the end of the month. Many potential borrowers are unlikely to make the deadline.
“If Congress fails to act promptly, then prospective homebuyers might not get the benefit of the homebuyer tax credit, even though they have completed contracts,” the Realtors said a a letter to lawmakers.
First-time buyers were eligible for a tax credit of up to $8,000. Current owners who bought and moved into another home could qualify for a credit of up to $6,500.
The $140 million cost of the measure would be financed by denying businesses the ability to deduct from their taxes punitive damages paid when losing lawsuits or judgments.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Matthew J. Mauzy
Sr. Mortgage Consultant
Residential Capital Mortgage Corp.
1291 W. Galleria Drive, Suite 130
Henderson, NV 89014
(o)702-450-2890
(m)702-809-3037
(f) 1-702-552-8883
www.ResidentialCapitalMortgage.com/mmauzy

New Home Sales in March 2010 – The Facts

The recent numbers coming from New Home Builders Report are the following as of April 2010

KB Homes sold the most homes and has market share probably because it offers the most wide
Variety of entry level homes all around the valley.    Next on the list as DR Horton who also puts out
a wide array of single and two story homes at an affordable price.   These low prices and the drive towards
the April 30th deadline to be in escrow caused a surge in new home sales.   Frustrated Buyers who grew tired
of bidding against cash buyers for foreclosures or who got inpatient with a potential short sale transaction.

The Facts
There were 487 new home sales in March bringing the total for 2010 is 1,049 which is less than last year.
New Home Builders pulled 730 new home permits in March making way for Buyers trying to meet
the April 30th deadline and is also up from last year.

Based on a Report put out by Home Builders Research April 2010

Bank of America Posts a Profit

Bank of America Turns $3.2 Billion Profit in Q1
Posting back-to-back losses in the third and fourth quarters of 2009, the second half of last year was, to say the least, rough for Bank of America. But a new year marks new beginnings, and things seem to be turning around for the nation’s biggest bank. According to the company’s earnings report released Friday, Bank of America earned $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2010. That’s a huge improvement compared to the net loss of $194 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Read more at DSNews.com

Las Vegas Appreciation Map Released for 2009

Las Vegas Zip Code Map 2008 2009 as published in the Las Vegas Review Journal

FHA Relaxes Anti-Flipping Rule

FHA Relaxes Anti-Flipping Rule

Beginning Feb. 1, the Federal Housing Administration will provide mortgage insurance for some purchases in which the seller bought the property and held it for fewer than 90 days.

The agency is changing what is known as the “anti-flipping rule” to speed up sales of renovated homes in communities with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes, says FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens.

Waiving the 90-day rule will encourage private investors to buy vacant properties, fix them up, and quickly sell them to buyers who will be eligible to buy them using FHA financing.

FHA’s change “is going to be absolutely terrific” for first-time home buyers hoping to take advantage of the tax credit, says Bobby Taylor, an associate with Coldwell Banker Mountain West Real Estate in Salem, Ore.

Source: Washington Post (01/30/2010)

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Loan Modifications Hit Credit Scores

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Loan Modifications Hit Credit Scores

Applying for a mortgage modification and being in a months-long trial period can devastate a home owner’s credit score.

Under the government plan, troubled borrowers can have their mortgage payments reduced to 31 percent of their pre-tax income. They are first put in a trial modification for several months to test whether they can meet the requirements of the new mortgage.
Borrowers who were previously current on their mortgages will see their FICO scores fall about 100 points while they are in the trial period, according to the Treasury Department. Borrowers who were previously late or missed payments will see their scores fall more, the government says.

The longer a borrower is in the trial period, the greater the impact on their credit scores, Once the modification is approved, the borrowers’ mortgage credit status will be listed as current and that should improve their scores, the Mortgage Bankers Association explains.
Even so, the delinquency remains on credit reports for up to seven years and can make getting credit for something else like a car difficult and expensive, borrowers report.

Source: CNNMoney.com, Tami Luhby (12/28/2009)

How to Find out if you have toxic drywall in your home in Las Vegas

Local attorney files suit against Bank of America – Matthew Q. Callister

Local attorney files suit against Bank of America – Matthew Q. Callister

You can view more info about this at the news 3 website.

HAMP & HAFA Update

Go here to see if your servicer is participating in the HAMP program: http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/contact_servicer.html

There are some complicated rules being implemented as of April 2010 or prior if the servicer, lender or investor opts in by Dec 31, 2009.

City Center VDara Makes History on the Strip – Channel 3

City Center VDara Makes History on the Strip – Channel 3

Nevada Mediation News on Channel 4 – Is it working on not?

Nevada Mediation News on Channel 4 – Is it working on not?

VDara Opens at City Center

When the nearly 1,500-room nongaming Vdara hotel welcomes its first paying customers late tonight, the $8.5 billion CityCenter development opens.
 
The Strip project will open in phases this month after more than five years of development and construction. The 500,000-square-foot Crystals opens Thursday, and the 392-room Mandarin Oriental opens to customers Saturday. Aria, CityCenter’s centerpiece 4,004-room hotel-casino, opens Dec. 16.

The 57-story Vdara, designed by RV Architecture, which is led by Rafael Viñoly, has 1,495 suites, all with fully equipped kitchens. The units include deluxe suites and one- and two-bedroom units ranging from 500 to 1,650 square feet. There are also penthouse units and 250 corner-end suites with panoramic views.

Vdara is a condotel, which means the units can be bought and then placed into a rental program in which they can be leased as hotel rooms when not in use by the owners. The owners and MGM Mirage would share in the revenues produced by the units.

Vdara will have a signature restaurant, Silk Road, created by chef Martin Heierling, who developed Bellagio’s Sensi restaurant. Bar Vdara is in the hotel’s center lobby. Vdara also has an 18,000-square-foot spa, 10,000 square feet of meeting space and a 40,000-square-foot pool deck.

Off Record but Important to All Americans – USS New York Commissioned

USS NEW YORK (LPD-21) arrived in New York harbor on Monday, Nov. 2.  She is one of three new amphibious assault ships named after places in three states where more than 3,000 people were murdered in the infamous terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.  (View Official Website)

Still in construction are the other two: the soon-to-be USS ARLINGTON (LPD-24) named for the Virginia county in which the Pentagon is located, and the USS SOMERSET (LPD-25) named for the Pennsylvania county where American Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field.

All three ships will go to sea with steel in their bows that was salvaged and re-formed from all three terrorist attack sites: LPD-24′s from the Pentagon building’s structural girders, LPD-25′s from the meltdown of a crane used to excavate the airliner wreckage. other

She officially became a ship of the United States Navy at a formal commissioning ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 7.

During the rest of her visit she will be berthed berthed at Pier 88, on Manhattan’s 12th Ave. at W. 48th St., until Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Juhl Opens and Starts Closing Units

The much anticipated downtown project Juhl Opened in June and has closed about 20 units with five more in the pipe. The lending sector has drastically changed since these units were sold so most buyers who are getting a loan are having troubles. If you have cash in hand that is another story.

If you are interested in current pricing and availablity pleases do not hesitate to give us a call at 702-835-9298. If we do not answer we are on the phone with another client or with a client, please leave your name number and brieft message.

Thank you

Nevada Mediation law may slow new foreclosure default notices

Mediation law may have slowed default notices

The spike in home notice of defauts in July will add to the inventory of foreclosed homes on the market that has dwindled over the past few months starting another buying spree by investors looking to buy with cash offers.

With the moratorium lifted there is nothing holding back the banks from moving forward on homeowners unless they file for mediation within 30 days of receiving the notice of default.

What has your lender/servicer/mortgagee done for you lately? Refi, Loan Modification or Short Sale or just foreclosed on your property.

What has your mortgage holder done for you lately?   Is it Wells Fargo,  Indy Mac, Bank of America AKA Countywide, or host of others.  Some of the smaller ones are participating in the myrid of programs put out by Obama but the big ones aren’t participating.

Have you tried to do a refi or a loan modification?   Been denied?

Have you had to fax documents into your mortgagee and they don’t respond or get your faxes.  When you call in to ask they tell you 21 days to get faxes imaged into the system and call back.

Give use some feedback of what you are hearing whether you are doing it yourself a real estate agent or attorney.

Knowledge is Power.

http://www.hopenow.com

Must Read – Bad loans still make money – Jul 30, 2009 12:06 PM — Scott Jagow

Bad loans still make money – Jul 30, 2009 12:06 PM — Scott Jagow

A group of former Countrywide people launched an IPO today with their new company, PennyMac. Take one guess at what they’re doing. And while we’re at it, let’s talk about why the government’s loan modification program isn’t working.

PennyMac is based in Calabasas, California (sound familiar?), and it plans to make money by buying up failing home mortgages from failed banks and then restructuring the loans. From Forbes/Reuters:

PennyMac’s chief executive is Stanford Kurland, a former president and chief operating officer of Countrywide. At least 10 other top PennyMac officials are alumni of Countrywide, which was also based in Calabasas.

Countrywide was once the largest U.S. mortgage lender, but its aggressive lending practices are widely considered to be a major cause of the nation’s housing crisis.

PennyMac’s business has drawn the attention of critics who have accused Kurland and other Countrywide alumni of trying to profit from a housing crisis they helped create.

Do investors have faith in the crew the second time around? Well, in May, PennyMac predicted its IPO would raise $750 million. It netted $320 million. But the company has raised hundreds of millions from private investors as well, so some people believe PennyMac will find a way to profit.

And why not? What’s left of the mortgage business seems to be doing just fine. The New York Times reports that one reason the government’s loan mod program isn’t going very well is that mortgage companies collect tons of fees on delinquent mortgages:

“It frustrates me when I see the government looking to the servicer for the solution, because it will never ever happen,” said Margery Golant, a Florida lawyer who defends homeowners against foreclosure and who worked in the law department of a major mortgage company, Ocwen Financial. “I don’t think they’re motivated to do modifications at all. They keep hitting the loan all the way through for junk fees. It’s a license to do whatever they want.”

More from the article:

“If they do a loan modification, they get a few shekels from the government,” said David Dickey, who led a mortgage sales team at Countrywide and Bank of America, leaving in March to start his own mortgage advisory firm, National Home Loan Advocates. By contrast, he said, the road to foreclosure is lined with fees, especially if it is prolonged. “There’s all sorts of things behind the scenes,” he said…

“For many subprime servicers, late fees alone constitute a significant fraction of their total income and profit,” said Diane E. Thompson, a lawyer for the National Consumer Law Center, in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee this month. “Servicers thus have an incentive to push homeowners into late payments and keep them there: if the loan pays late, the servicer is more likely to profit.”

One more note on a semi-related subject. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Senate has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs, Deutsche and other banks to inquire about possible fraud in the mortgage market:

The congressional investigation appears to focus on whether internal communications, such as email, show bankers had private doubts about whether mortgage-related securities they were putting together were as financially sound as their public pronouncements suggested. Collapsing values for many of those securities played a big role in precipitating last year’s financial crisis.

If they can’t prove fraud, how about absolute and utter negligence?

$877 PAYMENT FOR SOME NEVADANS FROM COUNTRYWIDE BANK OF AMERICA

$877 PAYMENT FOR SOME NEVADANS

About 3,500 Countrywide Financial borrowers who lost Nevada homes in foreclosure can expect to receive checks for about $877 each early next year, the attorney general’s office said Friday.

The payments are part of a settlement announced in October with Countrywide over deceptive practices in making subprime, first home loans to borrowers around the country.

Subprime loans are those made to consumers with low credit ratings.

Former Countrywide subprime borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure are expected to receive notices in a few days, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement.

To qualify, the first payment on the loan must have been due between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2007. The borrowers must have lost their homes through foreclosure, a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. A short sale occurs when the lender allows the homeowner to sell the home for less than the amount owed.

Bank of America acquired Countrywide in July 2008 after the end of the period specified in the lawsuit.

The bank agreed to pay $150 million to borrowers in 39 states who went through foreclosure. Nevada was allocated $3 million for 3,467 former homeowners. In addition, the bank offered mortgage loan modifications to Countrywide borrowers and relocation assistance to some customers.

Consumers may phone Rust Consulting at 866-411-6987 or vis countrywidesettlementinfo.com to get more information about the foreclosure settlement.

 JOHN G. EDWARDS LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Mira Villa, the luxury golf-front community in heart of Summerlin Back on Track

The beautiful condo development called Mira Villa, the luxury golf-front community in heart of Summerlin is back online after a long process of bankruptcy.   The new developer is offering seller financing by Colonial Bank, Tier One Bank, and Nevada State Bank.  These banks have approved an outstanding and accessible in-house financing program for buyers at Mira Villa.

If you have an interested in a condo development with a ton of amenities, quality construction in the heart of Summerlin give us a call.

Beazer Drilled for $50 Million

This week Federal prosecutors said they would not pursue criminal charges against Beazer Homes USA Inc. as long as the company remains in compliance with an agreement to pay up to $50 million in restitution to homebuyers who were allegedly taken advantage of by the builder’s in-house mortgage company.

Who will be next?   Kimball Hills, not a chance their mortgage company changed names twice then closed it’s doors before any buyers came forward based on some of the appraisals we have seen.

Stay tuned.

10 Most Undervalued U.S. Cities as of June 2009

10 Most Undervalued U.S. Cities

Housing research organization IHS Global Insight estimates that the average U.S. home is undervalued by 12.2 percent, and many previously pricey communities are undervalued by considerably more.

A recent study released by IHS used home prices, interest rates, area incomes, population density, and historic premiums and discounts to analyze housing values. It examined 330 markets and found homes are underpriced in 248 of them.

Despite the high percentage of undervalued areas, IHS says “it is too early to call a bottoming,” as “job losses continue, housing inventories remain elevated, and consumers remain wary in light of economic uncertainty.”

Here are the 10 most undervalued areas:

1. Vero Beach, Fla., -42.5 percent
2. Houma, La., -41.4 percent
3. Las Vegas, -40.9 percent
4. Merced, Calif., -40.1 percent
5. Cape Coral, Fla., -39.1 percent
6. Houston, -36.9 percent
7. Midland, Texas, -34.8 percent
8. Lafayette, La., -34.4 percent
9. Vallejo, Calif., -34.3 percent
10. Stockton, Calif., -34.3 percent

Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (06/04/2009)

Smith Center to break ground – Concert hall, theater building to be completed sometime early 2012

Smith Center to break ground – Concert hall, theater building to be completed sometime early 2012

A groundbreaking for the long-awaited Smith Center for the Performing Arts has been tentatively scheduled for May 26, with construction on the concert hall and theater building expected to be complete by early 2012.

The center is to be the anchor of Union Park, a 61-acre development in downtown Las Vegas on what used to be a Union Pacific railroad yard.

Plans for the center include a 2,050  seat multipurpose main hall, an education building that will house a 300-seat cabaret theater, and a 200  seat flexible studio theater for rehearsals, children’s theater and community events.